This invention relates to a method and apparatus for a laundry appliance. More specifically, this invention relates to a laundry appliance that provides for determining an end of cycle using an intelligent control.
Laundry appliances, and in particular high-end laundry appliances, have conventionally used electromechanical timers. Other laundry appliances may use microprocessors to perform control functions. In systems using an electromechanical timer, the timer has a number of different cams, each of which are associated with different functions of the laundry appliance. In the course of a laundry cycle, sequences of functions are performed. Such functions include washing, rinsing, spinning and various other functions. The timing of the occurrences of these functions is determined by the electromechanical timer and its associated cams.
What is desirable is to determine the end of the laundry cycle. Although such a determination could be made using the electromechanical timer, there are a limited number of cams available and the cost of adding additional cams would be great and therefore impractical.
Thus, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for a laundry appliance that improves over the state of the art.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for a laundry appliance that can be used with an electromechanical timer-based laundry appliance.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide for an end of cycle signal for the laundry appliance.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an end of cycle signal for a laundry appliance that can be used to sound an audible chime.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an end of cycle signal for the laundry appliance without using an additional electromechanical timer-based timer circuit.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an end of cycle signal for a laundry appliance that is not cost prohibitive.
These and/or other objects, features, or advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the specification and claims that follow.